The Oilers will try to stop a two game losing streak versus North West opponents tonight, when the surprising Colorado Avalanche come to town.

The Avs are 8-1-2 this year, and 4-1-2 on the road and overall they are averaging 3.4 goals per game, and giving up only 2.2 The Avs are similar to the Oilers in that they have consistently been out shot.

Shots by Period:

1st period

2nd period

3rd period

Avs

79

119

81

Avs' opposition

125

114

133

Oilers

91

87

90

Oil's opposition

113

132

120

The Oilers have been a bit better in shot differential the past few games, but they lost both of those.

Mike Comrie returns to the lineup tonight and here is how they practiced this morning.

Fernando Pisani skated with the team for the first time in almost a month, but he needs a few more practices before he is ready. He could make his debut in Boston on Saturday or Long Island on Monday.

When they do activate him, they will probably put Souray on retroactive LTIR in order to have enough cap space to activate Pisani.

The suggestion that the Avs are coming back to earth is off-base at this point. They haven’t lost a game in regulation since Oct 8th, and since then they have won six and lost in OT in Minnesota.

The Avs have beaten the Wings twice in the last week, and they also have wins over the Bruins and Sharks this season. Their special teams have been great so far.

They are 7th on the PP with 12 goals in 45 chances for 26.7%, and their PK is 6th at 84.3%, and they were a perfect 8-8 on the PK v. Detroit this past Saturday.

Craig Anderson has played in all eleven games for the Avs and his .936 SV % and 2.14 GGA are both in the top ten. The Oilers will have to get him moving side-to-side if they want to get some past him. He is a big guy who plays the angles very well, and they won’t beat him from the outside.

Money management

Pat Quinn was 30 minutes late for his usual press conference this morning, and the reason was he and the coaching staff was meeting with management discussing what they will do with Pisani. Pisani might be ready Thursday, but it’s more realistic we will see him Saturday, and I’m guessing the organization was discussing who comes out, but also how they can fit him in money-wise.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

They had this thing on HNIC about the Canucks new dressing room. And they have this wall of all their jersey's. And no word of a lie there was at least 12 jersey's on that wall. How long have they been around? 40 years? That's ridiculous.

Is there a crowd at Rexall tonight? Where is the emotion? What does Moreau not understand about moving the puck forward to Cogs to utilize his speed to get into the zone? Cogs must be so frustrated. Way too many turnovers, we are gonna get burried! (no pun intended).

If the players did anything on the ice to warrent any noise other than boos, there'd probably be some. But when the team is standing around, doing nothing, the fans are going to do the same.
It's pretty hard to get excited when the team looks like they're trying to skate up hill all period.

Quit living in the past JW. The days of Horc being the #1 center are over. All thats left is the shell of a player who once scored 50 points in 50 games.

He can take all the faceoffs he wants, but he's not getting any better and his cap hit is outweighing his value. The team has to make a decision in the next calendar year as to whether they want to ride the Horcoff train or the youth train.

Seriously... you can't write that and expect it to be taken seriously. I'm not an Oiler fan, yet I see value in Horcoff. Obviously, he's off to a rough start, but if he gets 50+ points, shuts-down/out-scores the top opposition and remains a good faceoff/pk guy, it'll be fine. He won't be in the minors in the next 18 months. Lowe botched the deal and overpaid slightly. History shows Horcoff is a really good 2C/below average 1C, somewhere in the 20-40 range among centers throughout the league.

Perhaps Shawn's off-ice PA duties have taken a toll on his on-ice player duties? Clearly, something's not right. The shoulder should be fine by now. Is it the contract pressure? The Union duties?He's bound to shake this, righ? RIGHT? Actually, I'd find it funny if he was a dud for the duration, but I don't expect to be laughing all that much... til year 5 & 6.